Dark Angels
by Teal Thanatos
Summary: Ranma has always been good, just a little too good. his help is needed, will he do it? Prologue completed


A Dark Angel & Ranma 1/2 Crossover.  
  
All characters are not owned by me.  
  
There are a few differences in this timeline.  
  
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R.N.M.A   
  
R.Y.G.A   
  
Max looked at those names and the accompanying snapshots with a little awe.  
  
They had been among the first to be created and had vanished long ago. R.N.M.A had been created with a mixture of animal genes including some that were not commonly believed in. R.Y.G.A had been crossed with many of the same but with an emphasis on heavy creatures, the picture showed one of the animal relations in his fangs. R.N.M.A's features showed nothing of the extra genes he carried within.  
  
So, she had to find them… R.Y.G.A would be the hardest unless he managed to stick near the R.N.M.A. His direction sense or lack thereof had been catalogued in his first twelve months when he managed to get lost in his crib. Max sighed, perhaps he had stuck near R.N.M.A… 'Nah couldn't be that lucky' she thought glumly.  
  
Max looked around, she was inside a container which was on a plane heading to Japan, the last known place of the thief who had stolen R.N.M.A. Without at least one of them, any attack on Manticore would be almost impossible to make successfully. Max sighed and leant back on the wall, trying to find a little sleep would be hard in the cold metal surrounds, but there was nothing else to do.  
  
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Ranma was furious, but quickly pushed it back down; he didn't want a repeat of Saffron now. There had been a way to avoid that, but he had unfortunately lost his temper and killed the god, luckily saffron was enough of a Phoenix to be reborn. 'I wonder if I have that much in me to do the same.' Ranma mused idly, his earlier anger forgotten. "I can smell them, those who I am a part of…" Ranma whispered to himself "and both Herb and Saffron have those small parts I am from…yet what else went into me?" Ranma barely remembered when he had been in the Manticore facility, he didn't remember what country or even which hemisphere it was in, but he remembered being there.  
  
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"Hey kid, if you come with me, you can be my son, and learn martial arts!" the large man hanging from the ceiling of the sterile white cell was speaking to him. Ranma was confused, this was not regulation, so he looked at the man for a while... the man was wearing a formerly white Gi, training clothing. "Come on, you can get out of here!" yes, here was not very pleasant, they kept on sticking needles in him to get out blood and worse things. He had even heard one of the doctors saying he and R.Y.G.A. #00 should be scrapped because they could survive without the medication, albeit with a side effect or two. R.N.M.A #01 looked at the man again and nodded before going to the wall and tapping on it a few times. The old man seemingly had a heart attack and tried to stop him. "You'll alert Security!" R.N.M.A #01 shook his head and smiled, "R.Y.G.A. #00 is within the next dorm, he shall leave now that I'm going." The man nodded and picked R.N.M.A up, suddenly everything swirled slightly as what R.N.M.A #01 would later know as the Umisenken took effect. R.N.M.A #01 looked back just in time to see the door to the cell next to his open as R.Y.G.A. broke the already damaged hinges. R.N.M.A whistled merrily and R.Y.G.A. laughed and headed in the opposite direction. "I shall be quiet from now on." Whispered R.N.M.A to the man. The man smiled with relief and the duo walked around the corner.  
  
"So, you hear what they are doing?"  
  
"Whaddya mean Henry?"  
  
"Well, I heard that they are scrapping the Divine Beast line and going back to more basic models, such as cats and stuff…"  
  
"Man, that's stupid!"  
  
"Well, you know, the Dee Bee's don't need the medication like the basics do… those Dee Bee's are just as happy to kill us as the enemy."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Well, N.D.R.W. #01 was terminated last week…"  
  
"Yeah, I know a medical thing."  
  
"It wasn't." a whisper "he killed three people!"  
  
"He was only Two years old, why the hell would he kill three people????"  
  
"One of them spanked him."  
  
"You are joking, this whole thing is a joke, and they couldn't possibly kill people at that age!"  
  
"You have seen how strong R.Y.G.A. is?"  
  
"He is Four, tons older, besides! He is made to be strong like that!"  
  
"N.D.R.W. was a high manipulator, Energy blasts."   
  
"Shit…"  
  
"You know…R.N.M.A is a medium level Manipulator."  
  
The two guards were cut off by a blade of vacuum…. It killed them both instantly as Genma, someone who would have been termed a low level manipulator by the facility, used a forbidden technique on them.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
'In truth many of the things I say are lies… I am approaching twenty five years of age… so why do I hold to staying with the man who rescued me?' Ranma thought idly 'is this effort to gain family that can defend itself worth it? Perhaps I should just leave and go somewhere else… there should be others out there as strong as me… Herb was… Saffron was… I do not think they would allow them out without prospective mates to keep them in line…' a chilling thought occurred to Ranma, 'perhaps they were not made by Manticore….Impossible.' he decided as he finally jumped down from the roof and headed for bed.  
  
"RANMA! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING!" Akane screamed as Ranma breached the top of the stairs. Ranma looked at her coldly. She glared back. "Don't look at me like that you Pervert!" with those words Akane dashed forward as Ranma considered once again if he should just lead her around so that she hit her own family.  
  
Thud. Crash. There was a new hole in the roof and Ranma was flying via Air Kawaiikune Tomboy.  
  
Ranma sighed as he flew through the air, there wasn't much to do except practice ki while flying, that and watch the scenery, like the Sailor Scouts he was passing over. They were fighting some monster from somewhere and as usual, despite the fact he was almost a kilometre above them and rising, Ranma still got his share of panty shots. Ranma shook his head as they vanished from view and decided to go back to practicing ki. So he did. A while later Ranma noticed the ground coming up and ceased his efforts of making a ki ball produce a smiling face. Ranma poured ki into his body to absorb as much of the impact as possible. As he landed he noted he hadn't made it this far before… perhaps replacing the majority of the roof with an easy replaceable but easily breakable material hadn't been that good an idea… sure it didn't hurt so much going through it, but it didn't bleed off enough energy…Ranma shook his head in a futile attempt to clear his dazed features and started the long walk back to the Tendo's, if he was lucky he could get there by morning.  
  
"Hey, you look like you need some of this Tryptophan kid." A street bum spoke near the dole faced martial artist. The pig tailed boy almost ignored him until he heard that word. 'Tryptophan' it had been a long time since he heard that. Ranma turned towards the man, "How much and how much you got?" the bum looked surprised. "Not much, two bottles for 2000 yen each," Ranma frowned, only two bottles. The bum continued on quickly. "But I can tell you where you can get it."   
  
Ranma nodded and pulled out some cash. "Keep the change." He said as he received the two bottles and walked off.  
  
The bum counted the cash in his hand. There was over ten thousand yen there, he looked up but the boy was gone. In an effort to be nice he yelled out anyway. "You can buy it at the Docks!"  
  
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Ranma was smiling as he entered the dining room (wherever they usually eat). There had to be something perverted with that. That's it, the smile was perverted. "RANMA! HOW DARE YOU BE SMILE LIKE THAT NEAR ME!" Akane screamed as she belted the boy out into the yard and then dashed out and continued without mercy.   
  
Ranma groaned in pain as his now fully online mind worked. 'Must stop this.' Ranma rolled over and dodged a blow from the mallet. It imbedded itself in the floor and Akane took a moment to withdraw it while Ranma stood up and stared at her.  
  
'He dodged… he dodged… he dodged… he dodged… he dodged… Why did he dodge? CAUSE HE'S PEVERTED!' Akane's mind was trying to work... it doesn't seem to be working well is it? "RANMA HOW DARE YOU DODGE MY RIGHTEOUS MALLET!" Akane screamed at Ranma and leapt forward towards him.  
  
Ranma leant to the side and lifted his foot into place, she ran into it fairly hard and the pig tailed boy slowly spun on the spot until he had done a 360 degree spin, where he promptly put his other leg down and walked out the door to school.  
  
'She's so stupid… she made me look intelligent…' Ranma shuddered. He hadn't exactly been a paragon of intelligence for the last few years. Not since he ran out of the drug. He also felt… stronger now, Ranma looked at the fence he hadn't jumped on. Smiling he launched himself at a point five metres down the fence, but missed it by a good metre and landed in the canal . Looking up to the fence Onna Ranma smiled. It wasn't exactly a pleasant smile either.  
  
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"RANMA SAOTOME PREPARE TO DIE!" screamed Ryoga as he leapt towards Ranma, as he casually dodged Ranma wondered what had held Ryoga to continually return to him. 'Perhaps he does not want to lose his only link to this world…' Ranma mused as he dodged Ryoga's umbrella. Ryoga's eyes widened and he stopped swinging and gained an almost begging look. Ranma nodded to the silent question and pulled out a small brown bottle and handed it over. "I found somewhere to get it. I'll pass half on as I get it." Ranma said before the both of them just turned and left.   
  
Ryoga was smiling; most people would be extremely surprised, in fact those who saw him regularly walk down the street in the middle of somewhere were. They were all staring at him as he finally spotted a water faucet and dashed over with a gleeful smile on his face as he drunk from the tap and consumed two small tablets from glass bottle. He stood up straight with an odd smile, as if expecting something but not really disappointed when it had not happened yet… but he knew it would, so he smiled anyway.  
  
Ryoga pulled out a map from his backpack and looked at it. It was wrong, he could tell that. The map wasn't even of Japan, yet, it had been the one he had always used… why? He could not recall. Walking over to a nearby shop keeper he asked "Do you know where I can get some new maps? All my old ones are wrong." The shopkeeper nodded dumbly and pointed to a shop across the road and three places down, he fainted five minutes later when Ryoga walked in the door of the shop he had pointed out.  
  
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Ranma looked around the room; he had done his homework in his room. And a sneaking suspicion had proven itself correct when he hadn't been interrupted by anyone after telling Nabiki he was going out to the park for training. Ranma wasn't too happy about that. Every other time he had told anyone he was going to do some homework he had been interrupted early in it but this time, the one time he had lied to Nabiki, he hadn't. For a moment Ranma thought of passing it off as a fluke as he chewed on the end of the pencil but quickly decided it couldn't be. The evidence was almost overwhelming.  
  
A yell brought his attention downstairs, creeping out the door Ranma applied the cloak of invisibility (1) and snuck down to the hall. Shampoo and Ucchan were there, as well as Sasuke. "You said that Ranma honey was in that park Nabiki! And you said I was the only one who knew!" Nabiki looked a little nervous at that as Shampoo and Sasuke both glared at her openly. Sasuke spoke up, "You declared that the pigtailed girl was there as well, she is not." Nabiki backed up and Ranma sighed as she tried to get out of it.   
  
Ranma suddenly smiled coldly and dropped his cloak of invisibility (1) and walked into the room. "I would be extremely disappointed should any of my Fiancées, Purchased, information on my where abouts… I think, as I would never marry someone who did that sort of thing, that these two girls deserve their money back don't you Nabiki?" declared coolly while moving his stare from person to person. "And you Sasuke, I always thought you did have some mediocre talent as a shinobi, I guess I was wrong, I shall simply have to tender a recommendation from the pig tailed girl to have you replaced. Should you ever purchase information from Nabiki again…" Sasuke scowled and immediately left the room. Ranma knew it would take but a word from Sasuke on how Ranma was thinking of forcing the pig tailed girl to say that to protect him. But Ranma didn't care.  
  
Walking out of the room Ranma smiled to himself. Ukyou and Shampoo looked at each other. "What the hell just happened sugar?" Ukyou said finally. Shampoo just looked surprised. Surprisingly, Ranma was left along for the rest of the night.  
  
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"Good Morning Class." The adult Miss Hinako walked into the classroom in her adult body, Ranma leered subtly as she did so, it wasn't like she was wearing a lot anyway, that yellow dress was far far too short.  
  
"Good morning Miss Hinako." The class chimed. Ranma rolled his eyes.  
  
"Please pass your homework to the front of the class." Miss Hinako said cheerfully. "I do hope Mr Saotome that you have done your's today."  
  
Ranma smirked, the majority of the class was milling around the room putting their work on her desk. "Yes I have Miss." The classroom halted as Ranma bounced down the aisle and dropped a few sheets stapled together on the teacher's desk. Miss Hinako cautiously prodded it with one finger to check if it was real or not. Evidently it passed her test as she blinked and started to look through it.   
  
"This…This… This is…..Very good Ranma." She said in shock. Ranma sat back down in his chair and Miss Hinako started to stand to begin class. She fell back onto the seat after a moment still quite deeply in shock. The male half of the class abandoned the shocked silence and leered as one as the stunned teacher's attribute bounced enticingly.  
  
After almost ten minutes of quiet whispering, among which were some amusing phrases such as 'The world's going to end tonight.' Ranma finally spoke up. "Are we going to start class today Miss Hinako?" she looked up and nodded vaguely. A note landed on his desk as the teacher turned away.   
  
'Stop ogling the teacher!!!' it declared in large bold letters, a small picture of Ranma being hit by a mallet by Akane decorated it. Ranma just pushed it off the table and opened his book. There was a sudden sound of moving tables and chairs, Ranma looked around and smirked at the sudden emptiness around him. Even Daisuke and Hiroshi were not longer sitting within arms reach of him.  
  
That day continued on, no one game enough to speak to Ranma as he worked, and none willing to speak to the red aura emitting girl who was glaring daggers into the martial artist's back.  
  
"So Ranma, I heard you actually were doing work today…" Nabiki had dashed out of her classroom to corner Ranma at lunch, she had missed him earlier at recess but she had him now. She didn't think much of last night, but he wouldn't get her to back down today!  
  
"And if I have been, it's no concern of yours." Ranma said coolly. "I'd hate to have to mention to my fiancées that you are taking a… romantic interest in me." Nabiki blanched she could easily imagine what would happen if that was mentioned, she was about to continue but was interrupted by Akane's arrival.   
  
"You Idiot!" Akane snarled. "First you were staring at Miss Hinako and then you hid from me at recess!" she was emitting a large red Aura, Ranma idly wondered why she could do that... he was a medium level manipulator.. She couldn't have been engineered at Manticore to be a manipulator... But he did suppose, that Genma was a low level manipulator.. And he could do much more than this girl could. "YOUR NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO ME! LISTEN WHEN I'M SCREAMING AT YOU!!!" Akane raged.  
  
Ranma looked at her. "You're perfectly right, I was ignoring you. Sorry." He spoke quietly, forcing her to temporarily be silent herself.  
  
"HOW DARE YOU DO THAT AND THEN APOLOGIZE ABOUT IT!!!" Akane bellowed loudly as she swung her mallet quickly through the air and hit Ranma in the chest, Ranma grimaced as his ribs creaked before he flew into the air and downtown.  
  
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Max was stunned by the simplicity of moving around Tokyo, there were public transport and more vehicles in working condition than she had seen in her entire life. There were also no barrier check points or anything of the sort. "So this is a world where the EMP didn't go off." She murmured as the train she was one passed into a tunnel. The transgenic looked up as the train slowed. "Nerima, and the contact Tendo." Max whispered as she breezed through the crowd.   
  
This section of Tokyo was blessedly less busy than the others, there were evens stretches where there was no one at all. "How odd." Max looked around nervously, if there was less people, it might be a Manticore trap... But why would they go to this much effort. She sighed in relief as she approached the contact area. She was early by about five minutes, but the contact was too. "Konitchiwa Tendo-san." Max started but was interrupted quickly by the girl still in her school uniform.  
  
"Nabiki and we will speak in English please." Max nodded as the brown haired girl spoke forcefully.  
  
"As you wish Miss Nabiki." Max started. "I am looking for this person, and I was referred to you." Max pulled out the photo of R.N.M.A and showed it to her, Nabiki's eyes widened somewhat betraying the knowledge Max sought.  
  
"And exactly 'Why' are you looking for this person." Nabiki said after a moment.  
  
Max frowned, had Manticore already been here? "That is entirely personal Miss Nabiki."  
  
Nabiki frowned deeply. "Another fiancée for sure." She murmured, only Max's enhanced hearing allowed to barely pick those words out of the air. "I cannot help you. Goodbye." Nabiki declared as she stood and left. Max paid for the food eaten and began to tail her.  
  
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"Ranma."  
  
The aforementioned water cursed pigtailed martial artist turned around mid step. "What do you want Nabiki." He said coolly.  
  
Nabiki frowned at the obviously hostile words. "I believe I found another Fiancée of yours, a Gaijin. I told her I know nothing but she looked pretty determined. She didn't look to bad either." Nabiki said with a smirk. "You're lucky I didn't tell her exactly where you are. I'll just add the ten thousand I would have made onto your tab." She smiled again predatorily and brushed her pageboy cut back; this would establish who was boss and make him in her debt in one fell swoop.  
  
Ranma smiled back unpleasantly. "Then I'll take it off the tab you owe me, I'd say around ten thousand yen off the two hundred and ninety-four thousand you owe me."  
  
Nabiki's eyes bulged and she gaped. "WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT SAOTOME!" she shrieked loudly, the other three people on the street cringed and made a run for it. Another person looking around the corner made note of that.  
  
"Well, let's see, there's been a lot of photo's sold without my permission, and you owe me royalties on those at least, well, at least if you want to avoid a lawsuit that will put you in jail." Ranma's smirk grew broader, "and then, there is the times you have sold information on me without permission, and the time you ruined the dojo to stop the wedding…." Ranma's voice suddenly hardened. "Which may I remind you, you have not repaired completely!"   
  
Nabiki swore and stepped up closely and sneered into his face. "If you and your father hadn't been here I would never have had to do any of that! You're responsible for the amount of damage the house and dojo have received over the two years! And if you try to do-"  
  
Ranma had cut her off as he placed his hand around her neck. He didn't squeeze or even do anything apart from make it known it was there. Nabiki cringed back sudden fear evident in her wide eyes as Ranma allowed her to escape his hand. "Nabiki… what you fail to recognize is that I am sick and tired of being your personal entertainment toy. I will not be in any picture that you take from now on, and I will repair or pay to repair only the damage I cause, if someone else makes it, they will do it. I will not be held accountable for others actions. That means if Akane hits me through the wall, she pays for it, not me." Ranma snarled out. "If you try and blame me for the actions of Oyaji's arranged marriages, just remember, your father wants one of them to happen." With that he turned and walked away, completely ignoring the scowl she directed at the currently man's back.   
  
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Max stood up to the door, she had spotted R.N.M.A enter and leave the house by various methods throughout the day and had decided she would finally show herself, besides she thought that he knew Max was there anyway but was just ignoring her. Walking up to the door she knocked softly and when a mild mannered woman of her age beckoned her in she complied after introducing herself in Japanese to the woman, Kasumi. As she entered Max was invited to sit by Kasumi and did that too, while waiting a cute red and buxom red headed girl literally bounced past her, she stopped mid stride right behind her and suddenly her hand flashed out around Max's neck and held her throat tightly. "You're from Manticore" the girl whispered savagely into her ear. Max's eyes widened, had that boy told everyone? "Why are you here? Answer me now or die." The girl continued.   
  
Max's body started to shake as her prying hands realized the girl was far stronger than her, something that should have been near impossible. "I escaped and need R.N.M.A's help… to rescue the people from Manticore." The girl suddenly dropped her back into the cushion and only a moment passed before some other people entered the room.  
  
The first two were elder men; one in a brown douji and the other in an off white, the man in white eye's unfocused as he glanced at her and then suddenly he started to glare. 'Can they tell where I'm from just by looking at me?' Max asked her self mentally 'impossible, I look just as human as anyone else here.' The next to enter the room was the woman Kasumi and a short blue haired girl who also immediately started to glare at her. "Greetings and welcome to the house." The man in brown started. "I am Soun Tendo, this is my friend Genma Saotome, my daughter Akane and her fiancée Ranma Saotome." He stressed the word fiancée. Max looked at the red headed girl, she was Ranma?  
  
"My name is Max, I was looking for a man name Ranma… if he's here would I be able to speak to him in private?" Max said cautiously, these people were unexpectedly hostile.  
  
Genma immediately spoke up "There is no Boy named Ranma here, onl-"  
  
"Quiet." The red headed Ranma spoke. "Kasumi, may I have some hot water please, and we will talk outside… Max."   
  
"Here you are Ranma-Kun." Kasumi said calmly as she handed a glass of water to the red headed girl.  
  
Ranma stood up and Max followed her outside to a corner of the yard, away from both the dojo and the house. There the girl poured the hot water over her head.  
  
"Holy Shit." Max declared after a moment of blinking. The red headed girl was now a black haired boy. For a moment there they just stared at each other. Max finally found something to say to the young looking man. "It seems the age preventative genes work…" she laughed softly and Ranma laughed too.  
  
"Nice situation de-tensing." Ranma declared. "Alright, now what's this shit about you escaping and needing help to rescue people."  
  
Max sighed and leant on the wall. "Well, there are two hundred plus transgenics at Manticore at the moment. A few years ago about ten of us escaped. I have been waging a kind of person war against them recently, but they have a new base which is near impossible to enter and do anything too."  
  
Ranma frowned. "What happened to the old base?"  
  
"It was destroyed, almost all the transgenics escaped temporarily."  
  
"So? Round em up, get them to help." Ranma declared unsympathetically.  
  
"I can't, they are almost all dead." Ranma blinked and Max continued. "The majority of them fell for standard retrieval and were slaughtered. The new Manticore seems to have given up on experimenting for better models and is now working overtime to produce enhanced soldiers."  
  
Ranma sat down against the wall. Max followed suit. 'How did they all die? It should have taken nuclear weapons to kill the transgenics I knew, well, once they had grown up' "How did you find out about me and where I am?" he asked finally.  
  
"A picture of the man who stole you was captured on a security camera." Max replied. "I made a rough guess that you wouldn't stick in the same country and chose a random place to look for you, low and behold I found a Miss Nabiki Tendo with information."  
  
Ranma sighed and buried his face in his hands. Max leaned forward to hear him muttering. "Damn, Damn, Damn." He looked up at her. "I suppose you left information with someone else, and chances are it's only a matter of time before they are hunted down and caught because your not there to protect them?"  
  
Max blinked, then she rubbed the back of her head embarrassedly. "Well, umm now that you do mention it… yeah."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"So, what are they talking about?" Akane asked Nabiki.  
  
Nabiki shook her head softly, "No idea Akane… "  
  
They both sat down and Akane started glowering at them. "How dare he sit next to that girl, I've got half a mind to go pound him for that!" she growled.  
  
Kasumi walked up and spoke. "I do hope Ranma can resolve this quickly, he doesn't need another unwanted fiancée…"  
  
Ranma had buried his face in his hands.  
  
"I bet he's hiding his face to hide how happy he is he has another trollop to climb all over him." Akane sneered.  
  
Kasumi's ever present smile slipped slightly as she chided her youngest sister. "Akane, you know that's not true."  
  
Nabiki smirked and spoke to fan the flames before Akane could say anything. "I don't know about that Kasumi… He certainly looks happy enough when playing with Shampoo…"  
  
Akane's eyes widened her face in an expression of hurt, predictably this was the time that Ryoga would appear… and he did. Walking out from the back of the dojo was the Jusenkyo cursed swine. Seeing Akane's face his own lit up, only to fall into rage as he noticed her hurt expression directed at Ranma. "RANMA PREPARE TO DIE!!" he bellowed as he dashed in an arc around the Koi pond and towards the boy.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"I agree." Ranma spoke calmly, "I may not stay afterwards, but I'll help you for now." He elaborated.  
  
Max smiled in relief "Thank you so much."   
  
Suddenly Ranma looked up and away from her.   
  
"RANMA PREPARE TO DIE!!" A voice bellowed. Max looked up, jumped out of the way and almost shrieked in surprise and shock as the wall where she had been resting exploded from the punch of the attacker… Max reached for a gun but cursed as she realized she didn't have on. 'Curse the Japanese gun laws.' She thought as she identified the boy. "R.Y.G.A." Max breathed. R.Y.G.A. stopped mid punch and Ranma landed on his clenched fist, delicately balancing on one foot.   
  
"Who the hell are you, and how do you know that." R.Y.G.A. said madly as he reached for her neck.  
  
Max backed up quickly and tripped, R.Y.G.A. stalked forward until Ranma placed himself between them. "She's a friend Ryoga, she need's help getting people out of Manticore…" he hissed quietly.  
  
R.Y.G.A.'s eyes widened but then he glared at her. "The name is Ryoga now, Use it, we don't need this shit out."  
  
Max nodded her normal calm creeping back.  
  
They were interrupted by Akane, "Ranma, you had better not be picking on poor Ryoga." She said with a glare in his direction, Ranma no longer fazed as he used to be just snorted and earned a renewed glare from Akane before she turned on her heel and stalked inside, this gained a half-hearted glare from Ryoga.  
  
"We need to go somewhere private Ryoga, coming?" Ranma said quietly to Ryoga. Ryogoa nodded tersely and Ranma smiled weakly. "Hey Kasumi," Ranma called out, Kasumi appeared near the door where Akane and Nabiki had been a minute ago. "If anyone asks can ya tell them I'm sorting this out in private?" Kasumi nodded cheerfully.  
  
"Where are we going to?" Ryoga asked as they walked out the front gate.   
  
"I'll tell you when a bit further away, Nabiki uses a bit too much surveillance equipment to speak this close to the house." Ranma said calmly, "It'll be quicker if Ryoga or I carry you Max… we usually bounce along the rooftops and stuff."  
  
Max looked at them doubtfully. "Don't you try to hide at all?" she asked after a moment. Ranma raised his eyebrows. "There are a few people around that are... Unlike us but regularly use the rooves, there goes two of them now." Ranma pointed south, where in the distance a purple haired woman was riding a bike across the rooves and jumping the gaps, following closely behind was a white robed and black haired boy. Max stared with wide eyes. Ranma and Ryoga smirked.  
  
"'kay, I did not just see that." Max declared after a minute. Ranma leaned in towards Ryoga and whispered something that max couldn't pick out.   
  
Ryoga blushed heartily before squawking out "Why don't YOU do it!"  
  
Ranma frowned, "Cause that'd be consorting with other women and I'd get hit..." Ryoga nodded wearily at that and suddenly turned to max and slung her over his shoulder, before bounding onto the nearest roof, followed closely by Ranma.  
  
Max squawked. "Put me dooooOOWN." The transgenic shrieked as the ground dropped away from her. She stopped making sounds and just clung to Ryoga's backpack for support as Ryoga hit roof level, and she just scowled mightily at our pigtailed hero for the rest of the two minute journey.  
  
"Alright, we're here. You can put me down now." Max hissed as they landed in a wide open park.  
  
Ranma nodded at Ryoga, who complied quickly with her request, Max rubbed her stomach idly as Ranma sits down, Ryoga's shoulder had probably hurt it a little. "We're relatively safe from overhearing here, at least, as safe as we can be in this town." Ryoga and Max both sat down as well, Max grumbling at getting her pants dirty.  
  
"Alright Ranma, what are we going to do." Ryoga said after a moment of awkward silence.  
  
"Well, we're gonna help Max, and we need to make plans... we are not just going to head back there on the first plane, for all we know Manticore will have people at the air port for us." Ranma crossed his arms as the trio relaxed on the ground. "I say we go up to Canada, and then down along the coast to Seattle, from there we can check on Max's contact and whatever before scouting out the new base and crap like that."  
  
"Sound's good enough for me." Ryoga commented. "But, how about getting more people to help? Sure it's a risk and all… but I'd rather have some good people at my back than not."  
  
Max made several negative noises before speaking. "I don't know… its bad enough that I'm dragging you two into this… unless you know where more transgenics are?" Max's voice finished off in a hopeful tilt.  
  
"No, but we know others who will be just as useful if not more so." Ranma said after almost a minute of silence. 'this is getting to be more and more likely to be a trap by Manticore' he thought silently 'This is gonna be fun smashing it in their faces.'  
  
"What are you smiling at Ranma?" Ryoga asked with a a suspicious glare.  
  
"Herb, Saffron, maybe Toma." Ranma said with a smile that went from ear to ear.  
  
"Saffron, that sounds familiar…" Max said. "Was he one of the donors for the Divine Beasts? The guy who was supposedly from a dying species or something…"   
  
Ranma nodded, "That's the guy, I fought him a month ago, he's gotta be a focused high level manipulator as he brought himself back to life when he was killed."  
  
Max's eyebrows crinkled as she tried to remember more of what that meant. Ryoga nodded after a second as he rememebred and as if by magic Max remembered also.  
  
"They weren't a part of Manticore…." Max said hesitantly, "Why would they help?"  
  
Ranma frowned, she was resisting a fair bit to getting more help, not good. "He owes me. As does Herb, and besides, we lose nothing but time by asking."  
  
Ryoga nodded in agreement and Max found herself doing the same. Ranma smirked and decided that was enough planning for now. "We'll leave at four am, I'll organize for a plane to china for us three."  
  
Rygoa frowned, "I'll meet you at the central airport Ranma."  
  
Ranma nodded and looked at Max for a moment. "You have a place to stay for the night?" Max nodded as she agreed to meet them at the tokyo central airport as well.  
  
Ranma's gaze shifted between Max and Ryoga for a moment before nodding and leaping onto a nearbye houseroof without a word, Ryoga said a quick goodbye before leaping away at a tangent to Ranma's route Max watched them go and sighed before she also left.  
  
"Ryoga."  
  
"Ranma."  
  
"Your back, Fully."  
  
"Yeah, it took a little longer than I expected." Ryoga said, as he looked around the abandoned lot that Ranma had waited for him in. As one the both of them turned and left, walking towards the Tendo Dojo.  
  
"I thought of something, it's not pleasant." Ranma said after a few minutes of silence. "You're a controller, you pass on thoughts and emotions right…" Ryoga nodded, as his pheromes only passed information one way, he didn't know what Ranma was heading at. "And so, Ryoga, as P-Chan, you've been near Akane a damned lot…"  
  
Ryoga's eyes widened before he shut them and sighed deeply. He had noticed Akane's increasing violence over time. "I'm sorry Ranma." He said finally, his voice hoarse.  
  
Ranma shook his head. "Don't worry, neither of us remembered it, and you can counter the influence as much as possible tonight."   
  
Ryoga sighed and nodded. "just another reason to make sure we don't lose out on getting the drug again." Ranma nodded too, he could Feel Ryoga would be cursing himself for ages to come over this, although he'd try to avoid it seeping through.  
  
They continued walking along in silence for a while, they passed the old ladies house without incident but a sudden rainfall drenched the duo, leaving Ranma to carry 'P-chan' and his pack the rest of the short distance home.  
  
"Where have you been Ranma!" Akane snarled as Ranma walked into the house, Akane stormed out of the kitchen door as Ranma passed by and grabbed Ranma's arm, pullin her around rougly to face the irate youngest Tendo.   
  
"I found P-Chan and Ryoga's backpack, I'm going to put the backpack in the dojo." Ranma said with a depressed air as she handed over 'P-chan' to Akane before walking out to the Dojo.  
  
Akane snarled and started to follow, but P-chan squirmed in her arms, she smiled at him gently and spoke rougly "I bet Ranma did something horrible to you, I'm gonna go out there and punish him right now." P-chan squealed and Akane smiled. "Yeah, I'll do that to him too."  
  
Ryoga was panicking, he was trying to give out calming thoughts but it was not working well, she wasn't listening, and it would take a long time to counter the two years he had been with her as P-chan. Akane continued out towards the Dojo, with the struggling pig ignored in her arms. Ryoga sighed mentally as he did the final straw and bit her arm softly. Akane stared down at him for a second before smiling, "yeah, this time I'll do that too, I won't have to marry him if he can't have children P-chan." Ryoga's eyes widened in shock and horror. He turned as Akane's aura started up, Ranma was in sight, and Akane was preparing to attack. Looking desperately at Ranma Ryoga sighed and bit Akane's arm harder, drawing blood from the small wound.  
  
Both Akane and Ranma stared in surprise as Ryoga struggled free and dashed to the house. Akane glared at Ranma for a second but turned and raced after him, the dominant thoughts to protect the pig.  
  
Ranma sighed as she left. The imprinting had gone much deeper than he thought.  
  
Prologue End. 


End file.
